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Eure is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Normandy. The name in fact is taken from the Eure river flowing mainly in this department.

After the allied victory at Waterloo, Eure was occupied by Prussiantroops between June 1815 and November 1818.

1.
Departments of France
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In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War

2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

3.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

4.
Regions of France
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France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs

5.
Normandy (French region)
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Normans is the name given to the inhabitants of Normandy, and the region is the homeland of the Norman language. The historical region of Normandy comprised the region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements, or departments of Mayenne. For a century and a following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman. Archaeological finds, such as paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Celts invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the methods, Roman roads. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy, in the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast, the Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis, the Vikings started to raid the Seine Valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, after attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagnes empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Norwegian Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he, the name Normandy reflects Rollos Viking origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and they became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Saxons and indigenous Franks and Celts. Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Crusades. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor, the 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands

6.
Prefectures in France
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There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building that does not conform to safety codes. In the past, the prefect was head of the department, but since 1982, there is an exception in Paris and its three surrounding departments. These departments are administered by a prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, called the Prefecture of Police. The power of law enforcement is usually invested in the mayor in other French communes, the departments are divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons. The chef-lieu darrondissement is the subprefecture, the official in charge is the subprefect (French, sous-préfet. Cantons have relatively few competences, the most important one being the local organisation of elections, administrative divisions of France French National Police

7.
Subprefectures in France
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In France, a subprefecture is the administrative center of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term also applies to the building houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement. The civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, between May 1982 and February 1988, subprefects were known instead by the title commissaire adjoint de la République. Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a prefecture, the municipal arrondissements of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille) are divisions of the city rather than the prefecture, and so are not arrondissements in the same sense

8.
Les Andelys
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Les Andelys is a commune in the Eure department in Haute-Normandie in northern France. It lies on the Seine, about 35 km northeast of Évreux, the commune is divided into two parts, Grand-Andely and Petit-Andely. Château Gaillard, a castle, is located in Les Andelys. Charles Joshua Chaplin, painter Sir John Woodroffe lawyer and writer on Indian philosophy, a mix of brocante, local produce and associations, review here

9.
Bernay, Eure
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Bernay is a commune in the west of the Eure department about 50km from Évreux in northern France. The city is in the Pays dOuche and the Lieuvin, on its territory run the Charentonne, a tributary of the Risle, and the Cosnier. The etymological origin of Bernay indicates that it is a marshy place, the Cosnier is an important tributary of the River Charentonne. Between 996 and 1008 the duke of Normandy, Richard II offered this area in dowry to his wife, Judith of Brittany, the monks used the rivers flowing through the area for industry, for example cleansing, mills, fisheries. An abbey was built and it remains a jewel of the Norman Romanesque architecture, to cover the expenses and to assure their protection, the monks yielded a part of their property in 1048. The towns cloth industry is famous, and it has many fairs, because of the diversity, Bernay holds a big market each Saturday, which takes over much of the old part of the town. The veneration of Notre-Dame de la Couture is the starting-point of important pilgrimages which attract people from all Normandy, during the 19th century the road system was developed to modernize the city, and the evolution of industry moved towards the outskirts of the town. During World War II, the city escaped the Canadian bombardment in August 1944 thanks to a layer of cloud, thus preserving the attractive. Romuald Boco, soccer player Edith Piaf, singer Olivier Picard, archaeologist Haslemere Cloppenburg Jennings, Louisiana Canal Winchester, Ohio Communes of the Eure department INSEE

10.
Socialist Party (France)
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The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France, and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major political parties in France, along with the Republicans. The Socialist Party replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers International in 1969, the PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance. The PS first won power in 1981, when its candidate François Mitterrand was elected President of France in the 1981 presidential election, under Mitterrand, the party achieved a governing majority in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993. In 2007, the candidate for the presidential election, Ségolène Royal, was defeated by conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Then, the Socialist party won most of regional and local elections, in 2016, the party had 42,300 members. In 2014, the party had 60,000 members, in 2012 the party had 173,486 members. The defeat of the Paris commune greatly reduced the power and influence of socialist movements in France and its leaders were killed or exiled. Frances first socialist party, the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France, was founded in 1879 and it was characterised as possibilist because it promoted gradual reforms. Two parties split off from it, in 1882, the French Workers Party of Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, at the same time, the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui, a symbol of the French revolutionary tradition, created the Central Revolutionary Committee led by Édouard Vaillant. There were also some declared socialist deputies such as Alexandre Millerand, in 1899, the participation of Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseaus cabinet caused a debate about socialist participation in a bourgeois government. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, the two merged in the French Section of the Workers International. Leader of the group and director of the party paper LHumanité. The party was hemmed in between the liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions. Together with the Radicals, who wished to install laicism, the SFIO was a component of the Left Block without to sit in the government, in 1906, the General Confederation of Labour trade union claimed its independence from all political parties. The French socialists were strongly anti-war, but following the assassination of Jaurès in 1914 they were unable to resist the wave of militarism which followed the outbreak of World War I and they suffered a severe split over participation in the wartime government of national unity. In 1919 the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections, the right wing, led by Léon Blum, kept the old house and remained in the SFIO. In 1924 and in 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Coalition of the Left, the question of the possibility of a government participation with Radicals caused the split of neosocialists at the beginning of the 1930s

11.
List of French departments by population
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This table lists the 101 French departments in descending order of population, area and population density. The figures include, population without double counting for 1999, municipal population published in decree No, 2010-1723 of 30 December 2010 as amended by Decree No. 2011-343 of 28 March 2011 which corresponds to data compiled as at 1 January 2008, municipal population The total population takes into account double counting. Guadeloupe has seemingly lost population between 1999 and 2008, however, this diminution of the legal population is due to the creation of the overseas communities of Saint Barthelemy and Saint-Martin. In the 1999 census, the population of Guadeloupe without the arrondissement of Saint-Martin-Saint-Barthélemy was 386,566 inhabitants, the departments population has actually increased by more than 15,000 people over the period based on a constant territory

12.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year

13.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone

14.
Communes in France
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The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and have received significant powers of governance to manage the populations, the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. A French commune may be a city of 2.2 million inhabitants like Paris, communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, a commune is a town, city, or municipality. Use of commune in English is a habit, and one that might be corrected. There is nothing in commune in French that is different from town in English. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, as of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France,36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas. This is a higher total than that of any other European country. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes and this is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions, COM of Saint-Martin and it was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007, COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. It was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe region, the commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan Frances communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, the median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the area of communes is 22 km2, in Belgium it is 40 km2, in Spain it is 35 km2, and in Germany. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of Frances overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards and they usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them

15.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries

16.
Eure (river)
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The Eure is a river of Normandy in north-western France, left tributary of the Seine. It rises at Marchainville in the Orne department and joins the Seine near Pont-de-lArche, two departments are named after the Eure, namely Eure and Eure-et-Loir. Places along the river, Orne, Marchainville, La Lande-sur-Eure, Neuilly-sur-Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Courville-sur-Eure, Saint-Georges-sur-Eure, Fontenay-sur-Eure, Chartres, Saint-Prest, Maintenon, Nogent-le-Roi, Mézières-en-Drouais, Cherisy, Anet. Eure, Évreux, Ivry-la-Bataille, Garennes-sur-Eure, Bueil, Merey, Pacy-sur-Eure, Ménilles, Chambray, Croisy-sur-Eure, Autheuil-Authouillet, Acquigny, Louviers, Le Vaudreuil, Pont-de-lArche, Martot. Its main tributaries are the Avre and the Iton. http, //www. geoportail. fr The Eure at the Sandre database

17.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV

18.
Provinces of France
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The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4,1790, when the establishment of the department system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the counties of England. In some cases, several regions or departments share names with the historic provinces. The list below shows the provinces of France at the time of their dissolution during the French Revolution. Capital cities are shown in parentheses, bold indicates a city that was also the seat of a judicial and quasi-legislative body called either a parlement or a conseil souverain. In some cases, this body met in a different city than the capital, comtat Venaissin, a Papal fief 36. Imperial Free City of Mulhouse 37, montbéliard, a fief of Württemberg Partial display of historical provincial arms, Ancien Régime in France Gallery of French coats of arms Coat of arms Heraldry

19.
Normandy
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Normans is the name given to the inhabitants of Normandy, and the region is the homeland of the Norman language. The historical region of Normandy comprised the region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements, or departments of Mayenne. For a century and a following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman. Archaeological finds, such as paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Celts invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the methods, Roman roads. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy, in the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast, the Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis, the Vikings started to raid the Seine Valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, after attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagnes empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Norwegian Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he, the name Normandy reflects Rollos Viking origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and they became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Saxons and indigenous Franks and Celts. Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Crusades. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor, the 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands

20.
Battle of Waterloo
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The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday,18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon Napoleons return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, Wellington and Blüchers armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they could join in an invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Despite holding his ground at Quatre Bras, the defeat of the Prussians forced Wellington to withdraw to Waterloo, Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, who had withdrawn parallel to Wellington. This resulted in the separate and simultaneous Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard, upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment, across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon, in the evening Napoleon committed his last reserves to a desperate final attack, which was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellingtons Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleons last. According to Wellington, the battle was the thing you ever saw in your life. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and on 7 July coalition forces entered Paris, the defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleons rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. This ended the First French Empire, and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, the battlefield is located in the municipalities of Braine-lAlleud and Lasne, about 15 kilometres south of Brussels, and about 2 kilometres from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is dominated by a large monument, as this mound was constructed from earth taken from the battlefield itself, the contemporary topography of the battlefield near the mound has not been preserved. On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians, an additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Wellingtons initial dispositions were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels and this would have pushed Wellington closer to Blücher, but may have cut Wellingtons communications with his base at Ostend. In order to delay Wellingtons deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellingtons supply chain from the ports would be cut. By June, Napoleon had raised a total strength of about 300,000 men. The force at his disposal at Waterloo was less than one third that size, Napoleon divided his army into a left wing commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a reserve under his command. Crossing the frontier near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly overran Coalition outposts and he hoped this would prevent them from combining, and he would be able to destroy first the Prussians army, then Wellingtons

21.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert

22.
Prussian army
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The Royal Prussian Army served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power, the Prussian Army had its roots in the core mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Elector Frederick William developed it into a standing army, while King Frederick William I of Prussia dramatically increased its size. The army had become outdated by the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, conservatives halted some of the reforms, however, and the Prussian Army subsequently became a bulwark of the conservative Prussian government. In the 19th century the Prussian Army fought successful wars against Denmark, Austria and France, allowing Prussia to unify Germany, the Prussian Army formed the core of the Imperial German Army, which was replaced by the Reichswehr after World War I. The army of Prussia grew out of the armed forces created during the reign of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. Hohenzollern Brandenburg-Prussia had primarily relied upon Landsknecht mercenaries during the Thirty Years War, Swedish and Imperial forces occupied the country. In the spring of 1644, Frederick William started building an army through conscription to better defend his state. By 1643–44, the army numbered only 5,500 troops. The electors confidant Johann von Norprath recruited forces in the Duchy of Cleves and organized an army of 3,000 Dutch, garrisons were also slowly augmented in Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia. Frederick William sought assistance from France, the rival of Habsburg Austria. He based his reforms on those of Louvois, the War Minister of King Louis XIV of France, the growth of his army allowed Frederick William to achieve considerable territorial acquisitions in the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, despite Brandenburgs relative lack of success during the war. The provincial estates desired a reduction in the size during peacetime. In the 1653 Brandenburg Recess between Frederick William and the estates of Brandenburg, the nobility provided the sovereign with 530,000 thalers in return for affirmation of their privileges, the Junkers thus cemented their political power at the expense of the peasantry. Once the elector and his army were strong enough, Frederick William was able to suppress the estates of Cleves, Mark, Frederick William attempted to professionalize his soldiers during a time when mercenaries were the norm. Acts of violence by officers against civilians resulted in decommission for a year, Field Marshals of Brandenburg-Prussia included Derfflinger, John George II, Spaen and Sparr. The electors troops traditionally were organized into disconnected provincial forces, in 1655, Frederick William began the unification of the various detachments by placing them under the overall command of Sparr. Unification also increased through the appointment of Generalkriegskommissar Platen as head of supplies and these measures decreased the authority of the largely mercenary colonels who had been so prominent during the Thirty Years War

23.
French coup of 1851
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The French coup détat of 2 December 1851 was a self-coup staged by Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. It ended in the dissolution of the French National Assembly. His political measures, and the extension of his mandate for 10 years, were endorsed by constitutional referendum. A mere year later, the Prince-President reclaimed his uncles throne as Emperor of the French under the regnal name Napoleon III, in 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of France through universal male suffrage, taking 74% of the vote. He did this with the support of the Parti de lOrdre after running against Louis Eugène Cavaignac, subsequently, he was in constant conflict with the members of the Assemblée Nationale. Contrary to the Partys expectations that Louis-Napoleon would be easy to manipulate, he proved himself an agile and he succeeded in imposing his choices and decisions on the Assemblée, which had once again become conservative in the aftermath of the June Days Uprising in 1848. He broke away from the control of the Parti de lOrdre and created the Ministère des Commis, appointing General Hautpoul as its head, on 3 January 1850, he dismissed Changarnier, a dissident in the Parti de lOrdre, thereby provoking an open conflict within the party. He also actively encouraged the creation of numerous anti-parliament newspapers and acquired the support of 150 members of Parliament, the provisions of the constitution that prohibited an incumbent president from seeking re-election appeared to force the end of Louis-Napoleons rule in December 1852. Not one to defeat, Louis-Napoleon spent the first half of 1851 trying to force changes to the constitution through Parliament so he could be re-elected. Bonaparte travelled through the provinces and organised petitions to rally popular support, in January 1851, the Parliament voted no confidence in the Ministère des Commis. On 19 July, it refused the reform proposed by Louis-Napoleon. The coup détat was meticulously planned from 20 August 1851, preparations and planning for this coup took place at Saint-Cloud. Among the conspirators were Persigny, a companion of Louis-Napoleon, the Duke of Morny. On 14 October, Louis-Napoleon asked the Parliament to restore universal male suffrage and his request for a reconsideration of the constitutional reform proposal was also turned down on 13 November. Prepared to strike, Louis-Napoleon appointed General Saint-Arnaud as the Minister of War, followers of the President were appointed to various important positions, General Magnan as the Commander of the Troops of Paris, and Maupas, Prefect of Haute-Garonne as Prefect of Police of Paris. The operation was christened Rubicon, alluding to Julius Caesar, on the morning of 2 December, troops led by Saint-Arnaud occupied strategic points in Paris, from the Champs-Élysées to the Tuileries. Top opposition leaders were arrested and six edicts promulgated to establish the rule of Louis-Napoleon, the Assemblée Nationale was dissolved, and universal male suffrage restored. Louis-Napoleon declared that a new constitution was being framed and said he intended to restore a system established by the First Consul, reacting to this coup, parliamentarians took refuge in the mayors office of the 20th arrondissement of Paris and 220 of them voted to oust Louis-Napoleon from power

24.
Second French Empire
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The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor

25.
Seine-Maritime
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Seine-Maritime is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, until 1955 it was named Seine-Inférieure. 1815 - Occupation After the victory at Waterloo of the coalition armies,1843 – Railways and industry In Rouen, Elbeuf, and Bolbec, the number of textile factories is increasing. Metallurgy and naval construction as well, world War II Occupied by the Wehrmacht, Seine-Inférieure is the witness of two Allied military raids in 1942, the Bruneval raid and Dieppe raid. The department can be split into three areas, The Seine valley. The Seine flows through the provincial capital Rouen, the northern coastline, including the towns of Dieppe and Le Havre. The Norman Pays de Bray, with its hills and bocage landscape, the département was created in 1790 as Seine-Inférieure, one of five departements that replaced the former province of Normandy. In 1800 five arrondissements were created within the département, namely Rouen, Le Havre, Dieppe, Neufchatel and Yvetot, in 1843 the railway from Paris reached the region. The département is connected to the adjacent Eure department via the Tancarville, madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is set in Seine Maritime. The first story of long-running series Valérian and Laureline is set in Seine-Maritime, with the character Laureline originating from the area

26.
Oise
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Oise is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise, natives of the department are called Isariens. Oise is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 and it was created from part of the province of Île-de-France and Picardy. After the coalition victory at Waterloo, the department was occupied by British troops between June 1815 and November 1818, Oise is part of the current region of Hauts-de-France and is situated 35 km north of Paris. It is surrounded by the departments of Somme, Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, Val-dOise, Eure, the major tourist attraction of the department is the Parc Astérix, which opened in 1989. Another very interesting site is Beauvais Cathedral, also to be seen is the Chateau de Pierrefonds, restored by Viollet-le-Duc. The art collection of the Château de Chantilly is one of the largest outside Paris, one of the villages along the river Oise is Auvers-sur-Oise, famous for having been visited by several impressionist artists. This is where Vincent van Gogh spent his last 70 days and it is his and his brother Theos resting place

27.
Val-d'Oise
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Val-dOise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as quatre-vingt quinze or neuf cinq and it gets its name from the Oise River, a major tributary of the Seine, which crosses the region after having started in Belgium and flowed through north-eastern France. Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Frances main international airport is located in Roissy-en-France. The original departments of France were established in 1790 when the French National Assembly split the country into 83 departments of roughly the same size and they were designed as sets of communes, and when better maps became available, certain revisions had to be made. After defeat by the Prussians in 1871, certain territories were ceded to them, in 1955 and 1957, some departments changed their names. In 1964, it was determined to divide up the departments of Seine, Val-dOise was one of the new departments so formed, and was created entirely from the previous department of Seine-et-Oise. Val-dOise is a department in north central France and is part of the region of Île-de-France, the River Oise is a right tributary of the River Seine, and flows through the province from northeast to southwest. The eastern part of the department is part of the Pays de France and this part is progressively diminishing in size as Paris expands. Part of Charles de Gaulle Airport falls in this region, while other parts are in the departments of Seine-et-Marne. The southernmost region of the department forms part of the Seine Valley and these parts are heavily urbanised, but the ancient Roman road, the Chaussée Jules César, which linked Paris and Rouen, passes through the latter. The central and southwestern parts of the department are also largely urbanised, the western part of the department forms part of the historic county of Vexin français, a verdant, largely agricultural plateau. Its capital was Pontoise on the extremity of the county. This commune is now combining with the commune of Cergy to form the new town of Cergy-Pontoise. The Vexin area remains rural, and across the whole department. The economy of Val-dOise relies on two different themes, the northern, eastern and western parts are fertile areas of agricultural land producing large quantities of corn, sugar beet, and other crops. The urban parts to the south are dormitory towns, used by working in the greater metropolitan area of Paris. The presence of Charles de Gaulle Airport and its associated TGV station provides access by rail to all parts of France, the department has nine business zones designated for high-tech industries. The department has an archaeological and historical heritage, but is not a region visited much by tourists

28.
Yvelines
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Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It inherited Seine-et-Oises official number of 78 and it gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969. Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-dOise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eure-et-Loir on the southwest, and Eure on the west. Two regional parks can be found in Yvelines, the parc of the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse, Yvelines is home to one of Frances best known golf courses, La Tuilerie-Bignon, in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche. In French, a man from the Yvelines is called Yvelinois, a woman is Yvelinoise

29.
Eure-et-Loir
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Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22,1789 and it was created mainly from parts of the former provinces of Orléanais and Maine, but also parts of Île-de-France. The current department corresponds to the part of the land of the Carnutes who had their capital at Autricum. The Carnutes are known for their commitment, real or imagined, a holy place in the Forest of the Carnutes used to host the annual Druidic assembly. In the north of the department another pre-Roman people, the little-known Durocasses, had their capital at Dreux, the inhabitants of the department are called Euréliens. Its agricultural economy is heavily dependent on economic and regulatory environment of the markets for crops. The Eure-et-Loir region is the first grain producer of France and it is also the national leader in the production of rapeseed and peas. Wheat production is by far the most dominant in the area, nearly 40% of all farmland is devoted to the cultivation of wheat, which has generated an average of 29% of the commercial agricultural production of the department over the last 5 years. The Cosmetic Valley represents 2.5 billion euros of turnover, includes 200 companies, collaborates with the Universities of Orleans and Paris, the pharmaceutical industry, around Dreux and the Polepharma cluster. The cluster represents 50% of drug production in France and 30,000 jobs, the Pharma cluster is also one of the creators of the inter-regional alliance Pharma Valley that has partner networks, Polepharma, CBS and Grepic. This alliance represents 60% of the sites located in France and 2.5 billion euros of turnover. The agri-food industry, promoted by Agrodynamic, with two companies in the sector, Ebly at Chateaudun and an Andros at Auneau. Woodcraft and furniture industry around the association Perchebois, the rubber and plastics industry, through the cluster Elastopole]]. The elevator manufacturer Octé has its office in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais The department also has the lead in renewable energy. Given in February 2011 by the General Council to the operator, EDF Energies Nouvelles, the President of the General Council is Albéric de Montgolfier of the Union for a Popular Movement. The most important tourist attraction is the cathedral of Chartres, with its magnificent stained-glass windows, british intellectual, friend of Thomas Becket. Bishop of Chartres from 1176 to 1180, bernard of Tiron, founder of the monastic order of Tiron and of the abbey of Thiron-Gardais

30.
Orne
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Orne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche. Orne is in the region of Normandy neighbouring Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, Manche, Mayenne and it is the only department of Normandy to be landlocked. The largest town by a margin is the prefecture, Alençon which is an administrative. There are no industrial centres, agriculture remains the economic focus of Orne. The inhabitants of the department are called Ornais, the recorded population level peaked at 443,688 in 1836. Once motor car ownership started to surge in the 1960s employment opportunities became less restricted, the two major cities in the Orne are Alençon, the prefecture, and Flers. Alençon is the town of the Orne department. Camembert, the village where Camembert cheese is made, is located in Orne, the local dialect is known as Augeron

31.
Calvados (department)
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Calvados is a department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast, Calvados is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from a part of the province of Normandy. The name Orne inférieure was originally proposed for the department, one popular legend ascribes its etymology to the Salvador, a ship from the Spanish Armada that sank by the rocks near Arromanches-les-bains in 1588. It is more likely, however, that the name Calvados was derived from calva dorsa, meaning bare backs, after the allied victory at Waterloo the department was occupied by Prussian troops between June 1815 and November 1818. On 6 June 1944, the Allied forces landed on the beaches of the Bay of the Seine in what known as the Battle of Normandy. Calvados belongs to the region of Normandy and is surrounded by the departments of Seine-Maritime, Eure, Orne, to the north is the Baie de la Seine, part of the English Channel. On the east, the Seine River forms the boundary with Seine-Maritime, Calvados includes the Bessin area, the Pays dAuge and the area known as the Suisse normande. The most notable places in Calvados include Deauville and the formerly elegant 19th-century casino resorts of the coast, agriculture dominates the economy of Calvados. The area is known for producing butter, cheese, cider and Calvados, the President of the General Council is the centrist Jean-Léonce Dupont, the former dominant figure of the right and centre in the department. The Conseil General of Calvados and Devon County Council signed a Twinning Charter in 1971 to develop links with the English county of Devon, the inhabitants of Calvados are called Calvadosiens and Calvadosiennes. In 1999, Calvados had 648,299 inhabitants, making it the 30th most populated French department, Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-sur-Mer, Calvados, commemorates the D-Day landing of the Canadian liberation forces at Juno Beach during World War II in 1944. The cult of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux brings large numbers of people on pilgrimage to Lisieux, every September, Deauville hosts the Festival of the American Movie and the beach resort of Cabourg hosts the Festival of the Romantic Movie. Annually, the city of Caen celebrates the festival of the electronical cultures called Nordik Impakt & The festival of Beauregard, the local dialect of the Norman language is known as Augeron. It is spoken by a minority of the population, the culinary specialties from the verdant countryside of Calvados are abundant, cider, calvados, camembert and Pont-lÉvêque cheeses. One of the advantage of Calvados is to be fairly near large urban centers, Calvados is therefore often preferred for holidays and for weekends and sometimes considered as the countryside of Paris. Calvados, via the port of Ouistreham, is an entrance to the continent from Britain, there are two airports, Caen-Carpiquet and Deauville-Saint Gatien. The department of Calvados has several popular tourist areas, the Bessin, the Plain of Caen, the Bocage Virois, the Côte de Nacre, the Côte Fleurie, several beaches of Calvados are popular for water sports, including Cabourg and Merville-Franceville-Plage

32.
Seine River
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The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine,30 kilometres northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and it is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea. There are 37 bridges within Paris and dozens more spanning the river outside the city, examples in Paris include the Pont Alexandre III and Pont Neuf, the latter of which dates back to 1607. Outside the city, examples include the Pont de Normandie, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, the Seine rises in the commune of Source-Seine, about 30 kilometres northwest of Dijon. The source has been owned by the city of Paris since 1864, a number of closely associated small ditches or depressions provide the source waters, with an artificial grotto laid out to highlight and contain a deemed main source. The grotto includes a statue of a nymph, on the same site are the buried remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Small statues of the dea Sequana Seine goddess and other ex voti found at the place are now exhibited in the Dijon archeological museum. The Seine is dredged and oceangoing vessels can dock at Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea, commercial riverboats can use the river from Bar-sur-Seine,560 kilometres to its mouth. At Paris, there are 37 bridges, the river is only 24 metres above sea level 446 kilometres from its mouth, making it slow flowing and thus easily navigable. The Seine Maritime,105.7 kilometres from the English Channel at Le Havre to Rouen, is the portion of the Seine used by ocean-going craft. The tidal section of the Seine Maritime is followed by a section with four large multiple locks until the mouth of the Oise at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Multiple locks at Bougival / Chatou and at Suresnes lift the vessels to the level of the river in Paris, upstream from Paris seven locks ensure navigation to Saint Mammès, where the Loing mouth is situated. Through an eighth lock the river Yonne is reached at Montereau-Fault-Yonne, from the mouth of the Yonne, larger ships can continue upstream to Nogent-sur-Seine. From there on, the river is only by small craft. All navigation ends abruptly at Marcilly-sur-Seine, where the ancient Canal de la Haute-Seine used to allow vessels to continue all the way to Troyes and this canal has been abandoned for many years. The average depth of the Seine today at Paris is about 9.5 metres. Until locks were installed to raise the level in the 1800s, the river was much shallower within the city most of the time, today the depth is tightly controlled and the entire width of the river between the built-up banks on either side is normally filled with water. The average flow of the river is low, only a few cubic metres per second

33.
Sea level
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Mean sea level is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earths oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a low and mean high tide at a particular location. Sea levels can be affected by factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales. The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change, the term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level. Precise determination of a sea level is a difficult problem because of the many factors that affect sea level. Sea level varies quite a lot on several scales of time and this is because the sea is in constant motion, affected by the tides, wind, atmospheric pressure, local gravitational differences, temperature, salinity and so forth. The easiest way this may be calculated is by selecting a location and calculating the mean sea level at that point, for example, a period of 19 years of hourly level observations may be averaged and used to determine the mean sea level at some measurement point. One measures the values of MSL in respect to the land, hence a change in MSL can result from a real change in sea level, or from a change in the height of the land on which the tide gauge operates. In the UK, the Ordnance Datum is the sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall between 1915 and 1921. Prior to 1921, the datum was MSL at the Victoria Dock, in Hong Kong, mPD is a surveying term meaning metres above Principal Datum and refers to height of 1. 230m below the average sea level. In France, the Marégraphe in Marseilles measures continuously the sea level since 1883 and it is used for a part of continental Europe and main part of Africa as official sea level. Elsewhere in Europe vertical elevation references are made to the Amsterdam Peil elevation, satellite altimeters have been making precise measurements of sea level since the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992. A joint mission of NASA and CNES, TOPEX/Poseidon was followed by Jason-1 in 2001, height above mean sea level is the elevation or altitude of an object, relative to the average sea level datum. It is also used in aviation, where some heights are recorded and reported with respect to sea level, and in the atmospheric sciences. An alternative is to base height measurements on an ellipsoid of the entire Earth, in aviation, the ellipsoid known as World Geodetic System 84 is increasingly used to define heights, however, differences up to 100 metres exist between this ellipsoid height and mean tidal height. The alternative is to use a vertical datum such as NAVD88. When referring to geographic features such as mountains on a topographic map, the elevation of a mountain denotes the highest point or summit and is typically illustrated as a small circle on a topographic map with the AMSL height shown in metres, feet or both. In the rare case that a location is below sea level, for one such case, see Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

34.
Union for a Popular Movement
–
The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was renamed and succeeded by the Republicans, Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president of the UMP, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by PS candidate François Hollande in a run-off five years later. After the November 2012 party congress, the UMP experienced internal fractioning and was plagued by scandals which forced its president, Jean-François Copé. After his re-election as UMP president in November 2014, Sarkozy put forward an amendment to change the name of the party into The Republicans, since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right have joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1981 and 1988 legislative elections, before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the centrist Union for French Democracy formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. However, in the 1995 presidential campaign they were divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, who was eventually elected, and supporters of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the RPR, before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac, divided in three centre-right parliamentary parties, founded an association named Union on the Move. After Chiracs re-election, in order to contest the election jointly. It was renamed Union for a Popular Movement and as established as a permanent organisation. In the UMP four major French political families were represented, Gaullism, republicanism, Christian democracy. Chiracs close ally Alain Juppé became the partys first president at the founding congress at the Bourget in November 2002. Juppé won 79. 42% of the vote, defeating Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the partys Eurosceptic Arise the Republic faction, and three other candidates. During the partys earlier years, it was marked by tensions, in the 2004 European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, the UMP also suffered another heavy blow, winning 16. 6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party, and only 16 seats. Juppé resigned the presidency on 15 July 2004 after being found guilty in a corruption scandal in January of the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy rapidly announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. On 28 November 2004, Sarkozy was elected to the presidency with 85. 09% of the votes against 9. 1% for Dupont-Aignan and 5. 82% for Christine Boutin. Having gained control of what had been Chiracs party, Sarkozy focused the party machinery, however, during this time, the UMP under Sarkozy gained a record number of new members and rejuvenated itself in preparation of the 2007 election

35.
French Communist Party
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The French Communist Party is a communist party in France. Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains an influence in French politics. In 2012, the PCF claimed 138,000 members including 70,000 who have paid their membership fees and this would make it the third largest party in France in terms of membership after the Republicans and the Socialist Party. It was also once the largest French left-wing party in a number of elections, from 1945 to 1960. The PCF has lost further ground to the Socialists since that time, since 2009 the PCF has been a leading member of the Left Front, alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchons Left Party. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, the new SFIC defined itself as revolutionary and democratic centralist. The 1920s saw a number of splits within the party over relations with other left-wing parties, the party entered the French parliament, but also promoted strike action and opposed colonialism. Pierre Sémard, leader from 1924 to 1928, sought party unity and alliances with other parties, with the rise of Fascism after 1934 the PCF supported the Popular Front, which came to power under Léon Blum in 1936. The party supported the Spanish Republicans, and opposed the 1938 Munich agreement with Hitler, PCFs Members of Parliament vote declaration of war against Germany in 1939. But the party was banned after German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact by the government of Édouard Daladier, the leadership, threatened with execution, fled abroad. After the German invasion of 1940 the party began to organise opposition to the occupation, at the same time the PCF began to work with de Gaulles Free France government in exile, and later took part in the National Council of the Resistance. By the time the German occupation ended in 1944, the party had become a force in many parts of France. It was among the parties in elections in 1945 and 1946, and entered into the governing Tripartite alliance. However, amid concerns within France and abroad over the extent of communist influence, under pressure from Moscow, the PCF thereafter distanced itself from other parties and focussed on agitation within its trade union base. For the rest of the Fourth Republic period the PCF, led by Thorez and Jacques Duclos, remained isolated, still taking a Stalinist line. Although the PCF opposed de Gaulles formation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, the years saw a rapprochement with other left-wing forces. With Waldeck Rochet as its new secretary-general, the party supported François Mitterrands unsuccessful presidential bid in 1965, during the student riots and strikes of May 1968, the party supported the strikes while denouncing the revolutionary student movements. Under the Common Programme, however, the PCF steadily lost ground to the PS, initially allotted a minor share in Mitterrands government, the PCF resigned in 1984 as the government turned towards fiscal orthodoxy

36.
New Centre
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The party foundation was announced on 29 May 2007 during a press conference. The party was renamed from Nouveau Centre to Les Centristes on 11 December 2016, Les Centristes traces its history to the major centrist and Christian-democratic political parties in the Fourth and Fifth Republics. The parties maintained a separate existence from the Gaullist parties in the years of the Fifth Republic primarily because of de Gaulles strong opposition to European integration. In 2002, the RPR suggested a merger with the UDF but then-UDF leader Francois Bayrou refused, the RPR itself merged with smaller parties in 2002 to become the Union for a Popular Movement. At the same time, the UDF served as a partner for the UMP. UMP prime ministers usually appointed several UDF politicians to their governments to cement that support, in 2005, Bayrou became increasingly critical of the UMP government and ended his support of the Gaullist party in 2006. In the 2007 elections that followed, most UDF deputies running for reelection ran with the UMP in order to gain UMP support, the remains of the UDF renamed itself the New Centre and succeeded in electing 22 deputies to the National Assembly. Bayrou opposed the alliance with the UMP and formed a new party, during the legislative elections in June 2007,17 NC deputies were elected, in addition to five unaffiliated deputies elected under the Majorité Présidentielle banner. Only three MoDem deputies were elected, even though they won 7. 6% of the first round vote, however, fewer than one hundred NC candidates were standing, compared to over 500 for the MoDem. Minister of Defense Hervé Morin was elected by the first round in Eure, other such as François Sauvadet. In total, six NC-PSLE members were elected by round one, in the second round,11 additional deputies were elected, giving the party a total of 17 deputies. With other deputies elected under various banners, the party formed a group of 22 members. Mayotte MoDem deputy Abdoulatifou Aly joined the group before defecting back to the MoDem, in a 2008 by-election in the Rhone, the party gained a seat after the UMP incumbents election was invalidated. The party held its congress in Nîmes in 2008, where Hervé Morin was elected president of the party. In the municipal and cantonal elections held in 2008, the party held most if its seats and it did gain, however, the cities of Agen and Châtellerault. It lost the department of the Somme but gained the Côte-dOr, in the 2009 European elections the party joined the presidential majority alliance and three NC members were elected as MEPs. In May–June 2011 the party joined The Alliance with the Radical Party, Les Centristess political ideas are in large part inspired by those of François Bayrou in his 2007 presidential campaign. It supports a market economy, which seeks to find a compromise between socialism and laissez-faire capitalism

37.
Left Radical Party
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The Radical Party of the Left is a social-liberal political party in France. It has been an ally of the major party of the centre-left in France. The President of the PRG is Sylvia Pinel and its Secretary-General is Guillaume Lacroix, the partys sole MEP is Virginie Rozière, who sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group. The partys youth wing is the Young Radicals of the Left, the party was formerly a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. The party was formed in 1972 by a split from the Republican, Radical, at that time the party was known as the Movement of the Radical Socialist Left, then as the Movement of Radicals of the Left after 1973. Led by Robert Fabre during the 1970s, the party was the partner of the Union of the Left. Nevertheless, its influence did not compare with those of its two allies, which competed for the leadership over the left. Robert Fabre sought to attract left-wing Gaullists to the party and gradually became close to President Valéry Giscard dEstaing and he and his followers were excluded from the party by those who strongly supported the alliance with the PS. Michel Crépeau was nominated by the party for the 1981 presidential election and he and his party endorsed PS candidate François Mitterrand in the runoff, who eventually won. The MRG won 14 seats in the subsequent 1981 legislative election, in the 1984 European elections, the MRG formed a common list with Brice Lalondes environmentalists and Olivier Stirn, a centre-right deputy. The list, styled the Radical and Ecologist Agreement won 3. 32%, the party resumed its customary alliance with the PS in the 1986 legislative election and supported President François Mitterrands 1988 reelection bid by the first round. The list led by Tapie won 12. 03% and 13 seats of the votes in the 1994 European Parliament election, however Tapie retired from politics due to his legal problems and the party, renamed the Radical Socialist Party, returned to its lowest ebb. After the Radical Party opened legal proceedings against the PRS, it was forced to change its name to the Radical Party of the Left, between 1997 to 2002 it was a junior partner in Lionel Jospins Plural Left coalition government. In the 2002 presidential election, the PRG nominated its own candidate, former MEP and French Guiana deputy Christiane Taubira, however, some members of the party including Émile Zuccarelli and PRG senator Nicolas Alfonsi supported Jean-Pierre Chevènements candidacy. Taubira won 2. 32% of the vote, Taubira gave her name to the 2001 law which declared the Atlantic slave trade a crime against humanity. In the 2007 presidential election, while the party supported the PS candidate Ségolène Royal, Bernard Tapie, in the 2007 legislative election the party won eight seats, including a seat in French Guiana and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. The party split on Nicolas Sarkozys constitutional reforms in 2008, six deputies and three senators opted to vote in favour, hence allowing for its passage. The PRGs president, Jean-Michel Baylet, ran in the 2011 Socialist presidential primaries - the only candidate in the field - but was placed last with only 0. 64% of the vote in the primary

Departments of France
–
In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to Ap

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Geometrical proposition rejected

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The 101 departments of France

3.
The three Algerian departments in 1848

Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a

1.
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territ

1.
One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC

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Flag

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The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire.

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With Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the Frankish monarchy, elective and secular until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

Regions of France
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France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March

Normandy (French region)
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Nor

1.
Flag

Prefectures in France
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There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building

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Petite Couronne

Subprefectures in France
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In France, a subprefecture is the administrative center of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term also applies to the building houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement. The civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, between May 1982 and February 1988, su

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A subprefecture in Verdun, Meuse

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A subprefecture in Langon, Gironde

Les Andelys
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Les Andelys is a commune in the Eure department in Haute-Normandie in northern France. It lies on the Seine, about 35 km northeast of Évreux, the commune is divided into two parts, Grand-Andely and Petit-Andely. Château Gaillard, a castle, is located in Les Andelys. Charles Joshua Chaplin, painter Sir John Woodroffe lawyer and writer on Indian phil

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Les Andelys

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Panorama from the belvedere of Château Gaillard

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Château Gaillard, Donjon

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Our Lady's Church

Bernay, Eure
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Bernay is a commune in the west of the Eure department about 50km from Évreux in northern France. The city is in the Pays dOuche and the Lieuvin, on its territory run the Charentonne, a tributary of the Risle, and the Cosnier. The etymological origin of Bernay indicates that it is a marshy place, the Cosnier is an important tributary of the River C

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Hôtel de la Gabelle

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Timber framed house in Bernay

Socialist Party (France)
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The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France, and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major political parties in France, along with the Republicans. The Socialist Party replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers International in 1969, the PS is a member of the Party of European Socia

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From left to right: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Bertrand Delanoë and Ségolène Royal sitting in the front row at a meeting held on 6 Feb 2007 by the French Socialist Party at the Carpentier Hall in Paris.

2.
Socialist Party Parti socialiste

List of French departments by population
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This table lists the 101 French departments in descending order of population, area and population density. The figures include, population without double counting for 1999, municipal population published in decree No, 2010-1723 of 30 December 2010 as amended by Decree No. 2011-343 of 28 March 2011 which corresponds to data compiled as at 1 January

1.
Population Density by Department

Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a

4.
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.

Central European Summer Time
–
It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries

1.
light blue

Communes in France
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The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where distr

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Road sign marking the end of the village of Y in the Somme department of Picardy

Estuary
–
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine

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Estuary of the Klamath River in Northern California

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River Exe estuary

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River Nith estuary

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Estuary mouth located in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Eure (river)
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The Eure is a river of Normandy in north-western France, left tributary of the Seine. It rises at Marchainville in the Orne department and joins the Seine near Pont-de-lArche, two departments are named after the Eure, namely Eure and Eure-et-Loir. Places along the river, Orne, Marchainville, La Lande-sur-Eure, Neuilly-sur-Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Courvi

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The Eure

French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the Ameri

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The August Insurrection in 1792 precipitated the last days of the monarchy.

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The French government faced a fiscal crisis in the 1780s, and King Louis XVI was blamed for mishandling these affairs.

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Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.

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The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 at Versailles.

Provinces of France
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The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4,1790, when the establishment of the department system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the counties of England. In some cases, several regions or departments share names with the historic provinces. The list below shows the provinces of France a

1.
Map showing former provinces (in colours), with modern department boundaries in black

Normandy
–
Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Nor

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Roman theatre in Lillebonne

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Allied invasion of Normandy, D-Day, 1944

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A typical northeastern Norman village

Battle of Waterloo
–
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday,18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon Napoleons return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, Wellington and Blüchers armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Nap

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The strategic situation in Western Europe in 1815: 250,000 Frenchmen faced a coalition of about 850,000 soldiers on four fronts. Napoleon was forced to leave 20,000 men in Western France to reduce a royalist insurrection.

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The resurgent Napoleon's strategy was to isolate the Allied and Prussian armies and annihilate each one separately

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Napoleon's headquarters on the eve of the battle, the Caillou ("Pebble") Farm

Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the hist

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... during the Renaissance period

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Flag (1892–1918)

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... according to the design of 1702

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Prussian King's Crown (Hohenzollern Castle Collection)

Prussian army
–
The Royal Prussian Army served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power, the Prussian Army had its roots in the core mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Elector Frederick William developed it into a standing army, while King Frederick W

3.
Brandenburg troops of the infantry regiment of Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, by Richard Knötel.

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Frederick William I, the "Soldier-King", painting by Antoine Pesne

French coup of 1851
–
The French coup détat of 2 December 1851 was a self-coup staged by Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. It ended in the dissolution of the French National Assembly. His political measures, and the extension of his mandate for 10 years, were endorsed by constitutional referendum. A mere year later, the Prince-President reclaimed his uncles throne as Emp

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Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte

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D'Allonville 's cavalry in the street of Paris during Napoleon III's coup.

3.
First Republic (1792–1804)

Second French Empire
–
The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government.

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Napoléon III

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Flag

3.
The official declaration of the Second Empire, at the Hôtel de Ville de Paris, on December 2, 1852.

Seine-Maritime
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Seine-Maritime is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, until 1955 it was named Seine-Inférieure. 1815 - Occupation After the victory at Waterloo of the coalition armies,1843 – Railways and industry In Rouen, Elbeuf, and Bolbec, the number of text

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Prefecture building of the Seine-Maritime department, in Rouen

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Notre-Dame of Rouen

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Element of the Atlantic Wall near Fécamp

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Entirely destroyed during World War II, Le Havre has been rebuilt in modernist style

Oise
–
Oise is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise, natives of the department are called Isariens. Oise is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 and it was created from part of the province of Île-de-France and Picardy. After the coalition victory at Waterloo, the departme

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Prefecture building of the Oise department, in Beauvais

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Art gallery in the Château de Chantilly

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Beauvais Cathedral

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Rollercoaster at the Parc Astérix

Val-d'Oise
–
Val-dOise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as quatre-vingt quinze or neuf cinq and it gets its name from the Oise River, a major tributary of the Seine, which crosses the region after having started in Belgium and flowed throu

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Prefecture building of the Val-d'Oise department, in Cergy-Pontoise

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Château d'Écouen

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La Roche Guyon

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Château de Théméricourt

Yvelines
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Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It inherited Seine-et-Oises official number of 78 and it gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969. Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-dOise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eur

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Prefecture building of the Yvelines department, in Versailles

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Palace & Gardens of Versailles

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The Grand Trianon

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The Hameau de la Reine

Eure-et-Loir
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Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22,1789 and it was created mainly from parts of the former provinces of Orléanais and Maine, but also parts of Île-de-France. The current d

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Chartres

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Location of Eure-et-Loir in France

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Chartres Cathedral

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Nogent-le-Rotrou

Orne
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Orne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche. Orne is in the region of Normandy neighbouring Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, Manche, Mayenne and it

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Prefecture building of the Orne department, in Alençon

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Château de Carrouges

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Château de Domfront

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Abbey of Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois

Calvados (department)
–
Calvados is a department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast, Calvados is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from a part of the province of Normandy. The name Orne inférieure was originally proposed

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Prefecture building of the Calvados department, in Caen

2.
Caen

3.
Château de Falaise

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Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Seine River
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The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine,30 kilometres northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and it is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea. There are 3

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The Seine in Paris

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Seine source

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The Pont de Normandie over the Seine, between Le Havre and Honfleur, on the Normandy coast

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The Seine and Eiffel Tower

Sea level
–
Mean sea level is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earths oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a low and mean high tide at a particular location. Sea levels can be affected by factors and are known to have varied greatly

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This marker indicating sea level is situated between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.

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Sea Level sign seen on cliff (circled in red) at Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park

Union for a Popular Movement
–
The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was renamed and succeeded

1.
Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at a UMP party congress in 2004

2.
Union for a Popular Movement Union pour un mouvement populaire

French Communist Party
–
The French Communist Party is a communist party in France. Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains an influence in French politics. In 2012, the PCF claimed 138,000 members including 70,000 who have paid their membership fees and this would make it the third largest party in France in terms of membership after

1.
PCF rallying for a 6th republic, 2012 in Paris

2.
French Communist Party Parti communiste français

New Centre
–
The party foundation was announced on 29 May 2007 during a press conference. The party was renamed from Nouveau Centre to Les Centristes on 11 December 2016, Les Centristes traces its history to the major centrist and Christian-democratic political parties in the Fourth and Fifth Republics. The parties maintained a separate existence from the Gaull

1.
New Centre Nouveau Centre

Left Radical Party
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The Radical Party of the Left is a social-liberal political party in France. It has been an ally of the major party of the centre-left in France. The President of the PRG is Sylvia Pinel and its Secretary-General is Guillaume Lacroix, the partys sole MEP is Virginie Rozière, who sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.

2.
La Rue de la Gare (the street of the railway station); picture postcard, 1920s.The town was served from 1872 to 1950 by the railway line Saint-Georges-Motel à Grand-Quevilly, which linked Rouen and Orléans.